Monday, December 14, 2009

The Bathroom Project Saga

If you've been a reader of my blog for a little while, you may have read a few posts and seen a few pics of our ongoing bathroom project here in our 1970's ranch, Suburbia, USA. If not, click here and have a lookie see.

Well, I.T. got the ceiling painted a nice bathroom white and he installed a fan, which is working very nicely, preventing moisture build-up during showers. I wonder why builders in the 1970's thought bathrooms did not need ventilation fans. Anyone?


Anyway, check out this ceiling and fan:

Now, I spent about two seconds of patience on trying to figure out how to adjust the lighting so my Nikon Coolpix could capture the color we painted the walls and cabinet doors. But that didn't work out so well. The walls are a coffee with cream sort of color called "saddle up your horses" or something like that and the cabinet doors and walking through doors are somewhere between "retro green" and "pennyroyal", which is also a shade of green. The trim is one of a million shades of off white.
In the above picture, you can see the butterscotch characteristic of the coffee on your saddle tan walls when the light hits just right. Unfortunately, you can also see the peachish tan with pee carpeting that is still in this bathroom. It will- one day- be tile or perhaps, linoleum, instead.


I.T. built a little medicine cabinet to hide the hole he had to cut in the wall, to do the wiring job for the ceiling fan (which he did not do- our electrician expert neighbor did the wiring). The cabinet door is one from our old kitchen. It just happens to be the same style as the lower cabinet doors in the bathroom. I.T. sanded the door, primed it and painted it with two coats of green paint. Then he proudly brought it in for me to see.
Above shot is with the hinges ON, but when I.T. first brought this little number in, he stuck the door up to the cupboard and just kind of set it in there. I held it in place and he stood back to check it out. Then I said, "will you hold it, so I can step back to look" and I.T. stuck a piece of blue painter's tape over the top of the door, slightly adhering it to the frame. "That'll hold it." We held hands and took a few romantic steps back........and watched.......as the little green cabinet door plunged forward onto the faucet of the sink below and banged a deep gash in its decorative molding. And in a couple of other places. (picture below is after the wood putty repair job and two more coats of green)
Jewel, my college blogger friend, posted about a corporate stress reliever scream that students participated in last night on campus. At midnight, everyone screamed at the same time out their open windows. This is a more than excellent idea and would work very well in my neighborhood at times (such as the one I am blogging about) like these when your freshly painted cabinet door decides to leap into your sink and become a train wreck, before your very eyes.
As for the doors, two days after he painted it, I.T. noticed a fingerprint on this one, near the doorknob, so he started to rub it out with a damp cloth and presto- the paint rubbed right off. If you can zoom in on the knob, you'll see it.
This caused me to blow a gasket. I gathered up the little, green cabinet door, the can of green paint, the damp cloth, my receipts and burned some rubber over to Home Depot. I demanded that the paint man mix me up a batch of green paint exactly the same color as I had in this can right here, but with a different kind of stick -to- itness. Then I demonstrated how if you wet a cloth (I spit on the one I'd brought along) and rubbed ever so slightly on the door, such as you would if you needed to clean off a mere fingerprint, poof- the paint rubs off! (The paint didn't rub off the little green cabinet door.) BUT. The paint man mixed me up a new batch, no questions asked and took back my easy-off can #1- breaking the rule of no returns on paint. As I think back on it now, I believe I may have been showing signs of anger and with all that spitting....well....I do feel bad now for the paint man.
I may or may not use this striped shower curtain indefinitely, but I found it in the pile of things that did not sell at the garage sale this spring. Since it looked kind of okayish for Christmas w/the red in it and all- I put it up, because the family was coming over for Pilgrim's homecoming party.
The trim around the window did not get painted, yet and I don't know what I'm doing for a curtain, but these Christmas napkins are the current solution for peeping Tom prevention. That's my neighbor's house out the window. Hi guys!
I have no towel bars hung and no toilet paper roll holder. The lower cabinets beneath the vanity did not get painted. But they are supposed to be green doors on wall color cabinet to match the rest of the room. I.T. says he thinks he has to scrape all the paint off the doors and repaint with the new and improved green paint.
My favorite comment so far is Pilgrim's. He took one look at the whole project and said, "Funny, mom, you've always complained about the green sinks and green tub and green toilet, but now you've added green doors on everything. It's all very green."
Corporate scream time. Everyone open your windows and let 'er rip....... !!!


Heidi

20 comments:

Mari said...

I love the corporate scream idea. Let me know when you schedule it!
The bathroom is looking really nice, and I think the green is a good idea. It makes the other green not stand out as much!

Andrea said...

I love how you transformed the old into new. You made the retro sinks fit in by adding the green on the doors.
Blessings, andrea

Kim said...

Oh Heidi, despite all your mishaps I think your bath is turning out very nice! Love the café con verde scheme you have going on and the red striped shower curtain adds a nice punch of color. I say keep it!

Can sympathize with the paint issue...until I found a Sherwin Williams store here I was SO FRUSTRATED with the poor quality of paint that rubbed off with the most minimal of rubbing (didn't even have to be wet!).

And a number of years ago I spent a bunch of time painting kitchen cabinets that started peeling before the paint tried. Could have used a corporate scream about then :-) Ended up spending way too many stinkin' hours stripping all that nasty paint off, sanding and re-painting with a different product. Ugh. I think it's possible my little fit in the store that time caused the salesman to abandon his career in home improvement.

Hang in there, it'll soon be done :-)

P.S. I think maybe a simple café style curtain in red?

Kim said...

dried, not tried -- although it seriously tried my patience!

Heart2Heart said...

Heidi,

Loving how wonderful all this looks. I am super amazed and think it should be featured in a cute home decorating magazine. You guys are super talented.

I love the shower curtain as it truly does make the bathroom seem Christmasy and it looks so darn cute.

Love and Hugs ~ Kat

Jewel said...

Oooh thank for the shoutout!
Yes, I love love loved the corporate scream!! It was so so so good!

The bathroom looks great! We have had 2 or 3 bathroom sagas in our house. :/ I love the green! (Matches your blog and mine!)

Good luck with the rest of the little details!

Ballerina Girl said...

lookin good!

Love the towel bar ;)

BG

Greg C said...

Remind me not to make you angry over anything. I like the colors. I would go with tile if at all possible. It will last much longer.

~*Michelle*~ said...

Now those are my kinda colors! Great job!

KrippledWarrior said...

I think it looks very snappy. Excellent job.

Gayle said...

I think those colors look really nice together! What a great idea to add green to the room to make the other green items that you didn't like so much look better.

Edie said...

I love it Heidi! I think it all came together beautifully including the striped shower curtain!

Edie said...

Oh, the visual of you spitting on your cloth at Home Depot and unsuccessfully trying to rub paint off your cupboard door is pretty hysterical!

My ADHD Me said...

Beautiful. I am SO NOT good at these kinds of things.
Although I'm not sure if my old computer screen picked up the colors correctly, I think they look great.

I did my bathroom last year ..... and well ..... lets just say I'm looking for some ideas, (er...easy ideas) to RE-do it.

I've missed you. Still trying to get back in the swing of getting to all my bloggy friends posts and catching up.

Hope all is well!

A Stone Gatherer said...

Oh I love the corporate scream idea too, just like Mari! Maybe I'll ask her today if we should do it at church! TEE HEE! Your bathroom looks great! Even with all the drama! We are hoping to redo our bathroom this winter. Wish us good fortune!

My ADHD Me said...

Merry Merry Christmas my bloggy friend!

Take care and God Bless you!!

kanishk said...

love the shower curtain as it truly does make the bathroom seem Christmasy and it looks so darn cute.
Work from home India

My ADHD Me said...

Merry Christmas + 1!!

2nd Cup of Coffee said...

I always say to Jorge, "Why can't ANYTRHING be easy???" Sorry for the paint debacle, but it does look great. My camera never shows the true colors in my photos, either. Makes my cranberry wall in the family room always look magenta or purple. Weird. I laughed when I imagined the paint store employee telling this tale at home that night: "And then there was this lady who brought in a cabinet door and spit on it ...." Wonder if he has a blog, because that would be a great post! haha

sanjeet said...

I love how you transformed the old into new. You made the retro sinks fit in by adding the green on the doors.

Work from home India